The Government Accountability Office tested the government’s Energy Star program with phony products and found it essentially to be a rubber stamp–except that only 15 of 20 products were accepted and two were rejected. I wish they’d explained the rejections in a little more detail.

Every time a libertarian stays in the closet, an angel gets its wings ripped off.

An attorney’s job is to be a zealous advocate for her client. I becomes a sort of theater of the absurd. It does not necessarily follow that she will retain this mentality on the bench. On the other hand, perhaps it is not so wise to turn someone who has built a career arguing on behalf of the government into a Supreme Court Justice. Habits are sometimes hard to break. Contrast with Ralph Nader’s 36 Questions for Elena Kagan, wherein the author’s first ten questions attempt to gauge Kagan’s support for free corporate speech, seemingly unawares of her very office’s zealous efforts to limit it.

The FAA has granted the company an extra 110 pounds to the LSA limit of 1,320 pounds maximum takeoff weight. Terrafugia says this will allow the extra safety equipment and a still allow the airplane to compete with other LSA aircraft in terms of range and the amount of payload it can carry.

Greece PM threatens lawsuit against United States investment banks for their “role” in the Greek government’s uncontrolled spending spree. Whatever. In other news, the threat made Democracy Now! headlines, sans, of course, any reference to Greece’s massive public debt–apparently 113% of GDP. Maybe they already did a show on it??

There has been an uneasy dearth of commentary from my favorite libertarian sources on the BP oil spill. Here is one of the best posts I’ve come across explaining what libertarianism could have done, and can still do, for the Gulf. Read the rest of this entry »